


Orders and Blood

by nebulia



Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood, Dom/sub, Enthusiastic Consent, Frottage, Light Bondage, Light Masochism, M/M, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-28
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-17 04:35:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulia/pseuds/nebulia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Sometimes Shizuka hated his grandfather, who had never let him choose. He was dying, and then he wasn't, and he had never gotten to say, "Yes, I want to be a vampire."]</p><p> Vampire AU. Yuuko runs a shop that sells blood, both in bags and in willing donors. Watanuki has delicious blood. Doumeki is a vampire. Shenanigans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orders and Blood

**Author's Note:**

> For [ekaterin24](http://ekaterin24.livejournal.com/) at livejournal, in honor of the several-month-old White Day Exchange at [A Hundred Wishes](http://hundred-wishes.livejournal.com/). I am so sorry this is so late. D: D: D: The prompt was: "fic or art, PG-13 through R 104 with Watanuki in charge." Please enjoy!

_"There are rules for donation," Yuuko said. "Rule one: never take from an unwilling person. Rule two: Even with a willing donor, you must wait until the wounds and bruises of the previous donation are completely healed before drinking again. Usually about two weeks."_

_"Not six?" Watanuki asked._

_"Most vampires take less blood than is taken when you donate blood at the hospital," Yuuko said. "They can only take as much blood as can fill their stomachs. Stomachs are not large, and vampire tissue has less elasticity than human. It doesn't stretch as much. Now hush. There are more rules._

_"Rule three: stick to your type. Like humans, who need a certain type of blood, vampires do as well, though not actual blood type. There are certain supernatural qualities humans possess, and different vampires prefer different qualities." She grinned at Watanuki. "Except for you. I didn't think a universal donor was possible."_

_"Is that even the right term? I feel like dessert is more appropriate."_

_Yuuko laughed. He grit his teeth. "Rule four: ideally, it is best to draw from the elbow or wrist. The neck is painful and harder to heal; the vessels are bigger and bruise more." Yuuko lifted the sleeve of her kimono to reveal a fading yellow bruise on her elbow, and two scabbed puncture wounds. To Watanuki, it looked like someone who had failed phlebotomy had tried to draw blood with a straw. It looked like it had been unpleasant._

_"Is it always like that?" Watanuki asked._

_"This looks good, honestly," Yuuko said._

_"Does it hurt?"_

_"Yes. Why do you think we get paid for it? It's like getting your blood drawn, only with more pinching and a bigger, duller needle."_

_"Why am I agreeing to this again?"_

_Yuuko glanced into the room, where Doumeki lay unconscious on the bed. He was deathly pale, blood soaking the gauze of his wounds. Her mouth curled up in a tiny, mocking smile. "I think you know why."_

\--

"You're bleeding again."

Watanuki looked down at the gauze wrapped around his arm. "Whose goddamn fault is that, then?"

They had been delivering blood to a vampire who refused to leave his house and did everything by phone. Watanuki (stupidly) had gone in with him, and the vamp had lunged for him and caught him with his teeth. Watanuki, surprised, hadn't moved quickly enough to get out of the line of fire. 

It was surprising, in a ways; they had visited this vamp before with no problems. But he was young; he'd only been changed a year or two previous, so perhaps he was bound to slip up. 

Usually, Watanuki was fast to slam a vial of blessed water or a prick of a silver pin into any attempted vamp's face when they latched on, but moments like these were why Shizuka was there to watch his back. And in return, free blood. For the most part..

He'd dropped his bow and pulled the guy back in seconds, but his fangs left deep gouges in Watanuki's pale skin, the flesh around the marks already beginning to bruise. Shizuka had dropped the blood bags in the fridge and informed the vamp that Yuuko would be hearing about it, and dragged Watanuki out of the house, where he had bandaged the wound as Watanuki ranted at him. It had bled pretty profusely. 

"I said I was sorry," Shizuka said. "Let me see." He reached out to check the bandages.

"It's fine." Watanuki yanked his arm away. "It hardly even hurts."

 _Liar._  
  
Shizuka remembered coughing and coughing and coughing until he no longer had air to cough, unable to breathe, and the soft apology of his grandfather in his ear, and the pain of being bitten, like a needle but bigger, embedded in his skin, not ever going away. And then waking up, hungry for something he couldn't explain, and that pain still there, his arm bruised from wrist to elbow. 

"We have to go back to Yuuko's," Shizuka said. "We'll make the rest of our deliveries later, but we need to tell her about this."

"It's not a big deal."

Shizuka grabbed Watanuki's unhurt arm. "It's a big fucking deal," he said. "I'd bet he gets deliveries because he knows his control is shit, but you can't deliver to him anymore. I'll do it. You'll stay outside. And Yuuko might want to make that delivery herself."

"Christ, Doumeki! You're not my boss. You're not even in charge of me—"

"I _am_ in charge of your safety." Shizuka dropped his arm but continued to stare at Watanuki, meeting his blue eyes. "You know that. You know why I'm here."

Watanuki set his jaw and glared at him. Shizuka met his eyes squarely, and didn't look away. 

After a long moment, Watanuki slumped, his eyes darting to one side. "Fuck you," he said. 

Shizuka sighed. "Come on," he said. "Let's go back to Yuuko's. She should probably check you out. You might need to go see Shuichiro."

"I'm fine!" Watanuki nearly shrieked. 

"I'll let Yuuko be the judge of that," Shizuka said, and grabbed Watanuki's arm. "Let's go."

\--

Yuuko ran a blood shop next door to Green Drug and Grocery. The storefront was small but there was a large apartment behind it. Officially, it was a coffee shop, and Yuuko had a fair number of early morning customers who actually bought real coffee, and Watanuki made scones and Yuuko made all sorts of froo-froo drinks and was showing Shizuka how to brew the best espresso in the world, but her real business was blood. Live donors and bagged blood, of all blood types and even some animals for those who had moral objections to drinking from people, even willing people. 

Watanuki had been working for Yuuko for a couple of years, which had, he would admit to Shizuka (though only while drunk), vastly improved his quality of life. And Shizuka knew it, could smell it; Watanuki was a universal donor, and his blood was the most delicious Shizuka had ever tasted. 

But Shizuka was different; vamps preferred certain types of people, but Shizuka actually preferred Watanuki, not just because he was appealing to everyone. There was something underneath the superficial deliciousness that was—

Shizuka didn't know what to call it. Watanuki tasted like anger and frustration and a sort of deeply-hidden friendship, but that was just emotion. Yuuko, from whom he'd also drunk, tasted of amusement and a sort of sad, hopeless, helpless kindness. But there was something more about Watanuki, and Shizuka couldn't put his finger on it. 

Yuuko deemed a visit to Shuichiro unnecessary, but told Shizuka to take Watanuki next door and get him checked out by Kakei. 

"Seriously?" Watanuki said. "Do I have to? They are so creepy."

Shizuka privately agreed, but Kakei knew his shit. 

"I have it on good authority that Saiga is out today," Yuuko said, and lifted an eyebrow. "And I need to call Flourite. He's young, but shouldn't have had such a problem." She picked up the phone and gave them a pointed look. 

Watanuki stood and shoved the chair into the table, rewrapping his arm. The bruise was still spreading, and he definitely needed to clean out the puncture wounds. "Come on," he grumbled.

Shizuka followed him. 

\--

Kakei was a vampire who drank exclusively from Rikuou, one of his employees. Rikuou came over every to weeks to have blood drawn to put into bags for Kakei, who had a mug he drank out of that read "Ask me about my grand-dog." No one knew where it had come from, other than that Saiga had found it and presented it as a gift, and Kazahaya, Kakei's other employee, thought it was the ugliest thing in the history of the world.

"You'll be fine," Kakei said as he drank from said ugly mug, after cleaning and bandaging Watanuki's arm. "But you lost a lot of blood, and those bruises are bad. I'd go at least a month before donating again. Do you have any stocked up?" He glanced at Shizuka, so quickly that Watanuki probably didn't notice. 

"No," Watanuki said. 

"I can go elsewhere," Shizuka said. "Don't worry."

"Jesus," Watanuki said. "It's not like you drink only from me."

Kakei glanced at Shizuka again, and Shizuka looked away. 

\--

Watanuki was Shizuka's sole donor, for the most part. Shizuka had never had much of an appetite after he'd been turned, and so he really only needed a pint or so every two or so weeks. He supplemented it with tea, which didn't give him the sort of indigestion all other food did. 

But sometimes things like these happened, and Shizuka couldn't go a month without food without getting sick. 

Back at the shop, he called Kunogi and invited her for lunch. She'd checked out as not having donated in over three weeks, and she offered to come over that day. 

When Shizuka couldn’t drink from Watanuki, he went to Kunogi. 

Kunogi Himawari was a friend of Watanuki's from when they were in high school, and Watanuki had an enormous—and apparently benign—crush on her. She came in and donated regularly, one of the live donors. Whenever she came in, the three of them had lunch at a restaurant down the street that Watanuki actually deemed worthy of his patronage. 

Himawari was married to a strange man whom Shizuka only knew as Nataku, and he had taken her name. They had no children yet, but they were strangely and rather desperately in love with each other, and every time Watanuki thought about it he nearly went into conniptions. 

Secretly, Shizuka thought it romantic, but he couldn't say that. 

Himwari donated a fair bit and then bled a little more into a bag so Shizuka could join them at the restaurant, where Himawari chattered about her job and Nataku and Watanuki told her about the crazy vamp and Shizuka secretly switched out his glass of wine with one of blood. Eating real food made for awful digestion, if he managed to keep it down. 

"Hey," Himawari said suddenly, "When was the last time you visited your grandfather?" 

"A month or so," Shizuka said, and sipped from his glass. 

"We should go!" 

"We could probably go today," Shizuka said. "He's usually not too busy this time of year."

"We can't go today," Watanuki said, horrified. "He'd freak out about my arm."

"He worries about you," Shizuka said. "It's because you're physically incapable of taking care of yourself."

"Oh, shut up," Watanuki said. "But I'm not having him fret over me while he smiles and smokes and pretends like he's not fretting."

Himawari laid a hand on Watanuki's uninjured arm. "You are all right, aren't you?"

"I'm fine, Himawari-chan!" Watanuki said. "Please, don't worry about me!" 

Himawari looked skeptical but smiled at him anyway. "If you're sure," she said. 

"I am!" 

"He's all right, isn't he?" Himawari asked Shizuka. 

"He'll be fine soon enough," Shizuka said, and rolled his eyes. 

\--

Sometimes Shizuka hated his grandfather, who had never let him choose. He was dying, and then he wasn't, and he had never gotten to say, "Yes, I want to be a vampire."

But usually it didn't affect his quality of life, other than that he had been turned while the United States was still occupying Japan. And, as his grandfather was fond of saying, vampirism wasn't a life sentence. They still died, they still got sick. Donors had to be free of any bloodborne diseases; AIDS and hepatitis killed vampires more quickly than they did humans. And there were many vamps that chose to die, and, in fact, Yuuko helped them, provided they were over one hundred and passed her little psychological exam. Once you were completely drained, you were dead. If you didn't eat for long enough—longer than with humans, provided you weren't bleeding regularly, you were dead. If you were beheaded, you were dead. If you were stabbed in the heart, if it was damaged enough that it could not longer beat, you might survive, but you had to get fresh blood, and a lot of it, to begin to heal it. 

Shizuka figured that at some point, he would become tired of living, and let himself die. Maybe when he turned one hundred in 2029. 

Now he figured he'd wait until Watanuki died, no matter how long it took. It wasn't like he had anything else to do. 

They were making a delivery one night to a vamp who kept the traditional nocturnal hours when Watanuki said, "Was it worth it?"

"Worth what?" 

"Becoming a vampire." 

Shizuka paused. "Why're you saying this?"

"You can't even drink tea. It's your favorite."

"I can drink green tea. Even oolong sometimes. Just not black." He looked at Watanuki. "Do you want to be a vampire?"

"What? No!" Watanuki looked horrified. "But—is all of the trouble, the hiding, the not aging—is it worth it?"

"Well, I was dying," Shizuka said. "So yeah, sort of. But I didn't—you know I didn't get to choose. I couldn't even breathe anymore, let alone speak. I was in an Iron Lung, and my parents called my grandfather to say goodbye, and he stole me away and turned me." 

"That's dramatic," Watanuki said. 

"My parents left me alone with him and I didn't want to die. I remember that much. I don't remember if I told him that, if I even could."

"Why don't you hate him?"

"Sometimes I do," Shizuka said without thinking, and then closed his mouth. Watanuki was looking at him, eyes enormous, mouth open. He sighed. "I would have said yes if he'd asked."

"But he didn't." Watanuki looked like he was figuring something out. He fingered the band-aid on his arm. The bruises were fading to yellow. "You're all right with anything, as long as someone asks you first."

"If you say so," Shizuka said. Watanuki had never been the greatest judge of character; no way he was starting now. It wasn't completely true, anyway. But he couldn't deny that Watanuki was onto something. 

"That's not exactly the best personality trait," Watanuki said, cross. "You're okay with it?"

Shizuka shrugged. "Whatever," he said. "You might have a point."

Watanuki glared at him. "You are seriously deranged, you know? I just insulted you."

"The truth hurts, I guess." Shizuka shrugged, and turned into the alleyway where they were dropping off some blood. He knocked on the small door. "Blood," he told Watanuki, holding out his hand. Watanuki opened the cooler and handed him the bags as the door opened and Shirou Kamui, a vampire in good standing with Yuuko, shoved Shizuka aside and lunged for Watanuki. 

Suddenly Shizuka was beginning to see a pattern. 

He grabbed Shirou before he got to Watanuki and suddenly he was calm again. "Shit," he said, looking at Shizuka. "What's up with him? He smells _amazing_. Amazing-er than usual."

"Are you okay?" Shizuka asked. Shirou was older than Flourite, so it made sense that he could regain control, especially with Shizuka holding him back. But Shirou was shaking, trembling. 

"We brought your blood," Shizuka told him. "Let's get you inside." 

"I had guests earlier," Shirou said. "One of them baked. My house is a disaster. I'll take it. Just push me in." He looked at Watanuki again and shook his head, and then went very pale. "Oh, oh no." 

"What?" Shizuka asked. 

"One of my guests—the boyfriend of my best friend." He made a face, looking suddenly sixteen. He had been very young when he had been turned. "He gave me something to eat."

"You ate it?"

"My friend said it hadn't given him indigestion; so far I feel pretty good. But—" He shook his head. "My friend's a vamp. His boyfriend's been looking for a permanent donor. He's got a sick mind. I don't—" he shook his head. "Never mind. I'm just being overprotective." He took the blood, and Shizuka let him go. His nostrils flared and he looked at Watanuki again. "Just—watch your step, all right?"

They nodded and Shizuka beckoned Watanuki to leave with him.

"Wait!" Shirou said, and Shizuka turned. 

"What—"

But Shirou had lunged at him suddenly, fangs and something bright and silver flashing in his hand, and Shizuka suddenly felt the sharpness of a knife in his chest, the strange feeling of flesh and muscle tearing, and blood in his mouth. 

"Doumeki!" Watanuki said, and stopped in the alley entrance. He looked at Shizuka on the ground, clutching at his chest. There was something wrong with his heart; something that needed blood and he couldn't move but Shirou had dropped the blood bags twenty feet away and Shizuka was bleeding, was bleeding out. 

Shirou looked strange and shocked. His eyes were hugely dilated and as they watched, his pupils shrunk to pinpoints and he tumbled to one side, leaning against the wall. He slumped down and his breathing slowed down and then he was unconscious. 

"Doumeki," Watanuki said again and ran forward, eyes on Shirou. 

Shizuka tried to speak but nothing came out but a raspy breath. His mouth was full of blood. It ran down his chin. 

"Shit, Doumeki, _shit_ ," Watanuki said, pulling Shizuka into his lap. "Come on, let me see." He pried away Shizuka's fingers from the gaping stab wound. "Fuck, that's bad, it's deep and is that your hea— _fuck._ " 

Blood was in his lungs too. Watanuki was full of blood. He was full of it and mostly healed from Flourite's attack, and it was fresh and sweet and delicious and fuck. No. 

"If you don't get fresh blood you'll die," Watanuki said. He was staring at his hand over the wound in Shizuka's chest. "I'm here. Do it."

The fastest way to get blood would be the throat. Watanuki's arms were holding him up. He shook his head and spit more blood. 

"Yes. Yes, you have to. Do you understand me? _Come on."_  
  
At some point instinct would take over, or he would pass out and then die. He should pass out first. He could kill Watanuki. 

"I'll stop you. You should trust me."

He shook his head again, but he couldn't look away from the artery in Watanuki's neck. He coughed and shit, there was blood everywhere.

"Do it," Watanki said. _"Do it_ ," and Shizuka remembered lunging forward and very little else. 

\--

He woke up completely healed, breathing dry, throat raspy. A glass of water was by the bed, and Shizuka sipped it slowly. 

"You're awake," Yuuko said. She was sitting in a chair next to the bed, reading a book. There was another futon on the other side, and Shizuka made out a tuft of black hair and some blankets. 

"Watanuki—"

"Hush. He'll be fine. I need to know what happened." 

"I think Shirou was drugged. I don't know why or with what. He said he had a friend with a sociopathic boyfriend." He took a sip of water and sat up. 

Yuuko's eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. "Hmm." 

"How much did I take?" 

"I _told_ you he'd be fine."

"But you're not telling me anything else." 

Yuuko handed him a cup. Warmed blood, watered down. Her own, from the smell. Shizuka sipped it, but didn't take his eyes off of Yuuko's face. 

"Tell me more about Shirou."

"He nearly attacked Watanuki like Flourite had; just lunged for him. I grabbed him and held him back, and he calmed down enough to talk to us. He got confused and then suspicious, and it sounded like he suspected one of his guests, his friend's boyfriend, for drugging him. And then said he was just being overprotective. We gave him the blood, and he dropped it and came at me with a knife maybe thirty seconds later, as we were leaving. Then he passed out, I think. I don't really remember much after."

"You carried Watanuki-kun home. You were pretty out of it."

"Is he all right?"

Yuuko sighed. "He's fine. I hooked him up to a transfusion—he probably would have been all right without it, but I wanted to be safe. His neck and shoulder's a bloody mess. I assume he was holding you?"

"I couldn't find his arms. I think they were under me."

"Yes. Well, he needed stitches, but again, that won't be a problem. I imagine he'll be on his feet in a couple of days. You'll need a while too; in fact, you should go back to sleep."

Shizuka's eyes were heavy. "You drugged me," he said, thinking aloud. 

"You need to rest some more. You're body's healed but you're still not recovered."

"Watanuki—" his voice was thick and fuzzy. 

"—will be fine. Sleep."

Shizuka dropped his head to the pillow and fell asleep almost instantly.

\--

He woke up to voices later; Yuuko and a completely blank voice. It was getting dark outside; he could see twilight in the west-facing window, and Watanuki still slept in the futon a meter away. 

"I don't know what to do," the blank voice was saying from what sounded like the kitchen. The door to his room was open. "I don't—she's gone and I don't know what to do."

Nataku. Shizuka stood up, fighting off a sudden wave of dizziness. Once it passed, he felt better. 

He went into the kitchen, and Yuuko was handing a mug of tea to Nataku, who was sitting at the kitchen table. Kamui was leaning against the counter, looking more serious than Shizuka'd ever seen him. 

"I'm sure of it," he said. "This is exactly the trick Sakurazuka would pull."

"Himawari's a good donor, and a well-known one," Yuuko said. "And I know Subaru—he's at least a hundred fifty. It may be that he needs more blood than a single donor who donates to a lot of vamps can supply. Sakurazuka could easily have found out that Himawari is Subaru's type, and that's the end of it."

"Was he expecting us to not figure it out?" Kamui asked. "Smug bastard."

"He probably has a contingency plan," Yuuko said. "You coming to get Subaru, or something like that."

Kamui shook his head. "He knows me well, and he knows he could sic Subaru on me and I wouldn't hurt him. I _couldn't_ ¬—" he took a breath, clenching his fists. "But Subaru would do anything for him. I don't know if he could kill me, but…but he could definitely try. He knows I wouldn't fight back."

"What about me?" Shizuka asked. 

Yuuko's eyes flicked to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Shizuka said. "Full. And everything's healed." He glanced at Kamui, who was studying the microwave.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I—I don't know what came over me."

"Not your fault," Shizuka said. "What if I went after Kunogi? At most, they'll think I'm dead. Even if I survived, they wouldn't expect me to be back on my feet. Would they know if I nearly drained Watanuki?"

Kamui's eyes went wide. "You drank from his neck?"

Shizuka shrugged. His turn to look away. "He—he was insistent."

"Watanuki has a strange code of honor," Yuuko told Kamui. "It sometimes means he gets hurt in order to help other people. It gets him into trouble." She turned to Shizuka. "It could work. No one would think _you_ —" She turned to Nataku, who was staring into his empty mug. "More tea?"

Shizuka looked down. 

He had always been deliberate about his actions. It was rare that he did something he regretted, and he had never felt guilt like this before. 

"I'll go," he said. Then, to Kamui: "Do you know where they are?"

"They live at the old Sumeragi complex," Kamui said. "Other than Subaru, who's old, the family died out forty or fifty years ago, I think. But—"

"I know where it is," Shizuka said, and walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs, into his room. 

Watanuki was blinking slowly on the futon, staring up at the ceiling. When Shizuka entered and went straight for his bow, he pushed himself up onto his hands, wincing. There was a little bit of dried blood soaking through the bandages on his neck, and Shizuka was suddenly aware of how close he'd come to tearing out Watanuki's throat. 

"What's wrong?" Watanuki asked. 

"Kunogi got kidnapped by the guy who drugged Kamui," Shizuka said. "I'm going to get her."

"What?" Watanuki demanded, trying to get to his feet. "I'm going with you!" 

Shizuka went over to the futon and pushed Watanuki back down into a sitting position, and then directed him to lie down. Watanuki struggled against his arms, still weak and pale. "Stay. You're hurt." 

"Whose fault is that?" Watanuki snapped, and then flushed. 

Shizuka flinched. "Don't," he said, and turned away from him to his bow, collecting a couple of strings and his quiver. "Don't—just—I'll get Kunogi and be back by sunrise tomorrow, all right?"

From where he sat on the futon, Watanuki grabbed Shizuka's fingers. Their eyes met, and Watanuki squeezed his hand, almost hard enough to hurt, and looked away and let go, anger written across his face. Shizuka made a fist, brushing his thumb over the warmth Watanuki's hand left behind, and left, closing the shouji behind him. 

Six hours later, as Sakurazuka's vampire pet boyfriend Subaru chained him into manacles bolted into a wall, Shizuka regretted the decision to leave Watanuki behind or maybe the one to tell him that sunrise—still half a day away—would be when he would return, or, really, the part where he'd bit Watanuki in the first goddamn place. 

\--

The Sumeragi complex looked like it hadn't been lived in for years, overgrown and rambling. Shizuka had snuck in, passed a koi pond with no koi, and entered the main house, a traditional, sprawling thing bigger than the temple where he'd grown up. 

It was empty, barely even furnished; Shizuka had checked several doors before noticing a smaller, western house, brick and two-story, behind the main house, about fifty meters away. It had small, high windows and one bigger window at the second story. 

Himawari would be there, probably. If she was alive, and not drugged, she would be kicking and screaming. The brick would block the sound more than the paper-thin walls of the main house. 

He crossed the distance between buildings with care, keeping as much to the shadows of the trees as he could. The brick house was unlocked, and Shizuka pushed the door open and came face-to-face with a vampire. 

He had dead green eyes and short dark hair and his nails were extended into black claws. He was old, then—older than Yuuko's estimate of one hundred fifty—and powerful, far more powerful than Shizuka was. 

He was faster, too. The fight was short, and Shizuka lost badly. The vampire had dragged him up the stairs, blood pulsing from several deep gashes in his stomach and arms, and a particularly painful puncture wound in his thigh. 

There was only one room upstairs; it had a cot in one corner and manacles embedded in the wall in another, and leaning against the window frame was a coolly-smiling human. Sakurazuka. 

"You met Subaru-kun, Doumeki-san," he said, and smiled. "He's just like you."

Shizuka looked at Subaru's dead eyes and shook his head. "I'm nothing like him," he snapped, but the words lacked conviction despite himself. 

Subaru finished clamping on the manacles and stepped back. He pressed himself against Sakurazuka like he was afraid of the world. 

"He'll do anything for me," Sakurazuka said. "You're saying you're not the same? Not even with your Watanuki?"

"He's not mine," Shizuka said. "He's no one's. He'd be the first to tell you that."

Sakurazuka considered him, rubbing his chin. "Oh, no," he said. "You're his, aren’t you?"

Shizuka shook his head. "I'm not," he said. "I'm not at all."

"But you want to be." Sakurazuka stepped forward, and cupped Shizuka's chin gently, lifting his face as he bent over to meet Shizuka's eyes. "And you're wrong. Once he finds out you're gone, he'll come for you."

Shizuka shook his head again. "He won't," he said. "I know he won't."

"He will," Sakurazuka said, "And then I'll have what I want."

Shizuka glanced at Subaru, still by the windowsill. "Kunogi's not your type," he realized. "You can't find your type. That's why you need Watanuki. But I came instead of him, so you'll keep me here till he comes."

"Clever," Sakurazuka said. "Subaru has a delicate appetite. I have to say, I thought you'd be dead."

Shizuka pulled at the chains. "I had help," he said. 

Sakurazuka smiled suddenly. He looked delighted. It was creepy. "He let you take that much? Oh, you child. I have no doubt he'll come for you, then."

Shizuka doubted it, but the adrenaline was wearing off and more pressing matters were at stake. He was bleeding; he'd need something soon. He shook the chains, testing their strength. They would be hard to pull out of the wall, but not impossible. "You know these won't hold me if I didn't want them to." He'd also have to be desperate, though; no adrenaline and losing blood, he didn't think he'd have the strength to pull them out unless he got fed or knew he would die otherwise. 

"That is exactly the point," Sakurazuka said. He nodded at Subaru, who left and came back up the stairs several minutes later with a little girl thrown over his shoulder. He dropped her on the cot. She was unconscious and unharmed, but Shizuka could smell her blood—his type. Sakurazuka had done his research, even when he didn't expect him to show up, or maybe he'd gotten lucky. If he stayed here too long, bleeding as he was, he'd lose control, snap the chains, drink her. A little girl, younger than ten, him a wounded, adult vamp losing blood at a fast rate—the amount he'd take would inevitably be too much. She would die of blood loss. Or he could hold fast, and die. He had the control to do it. He hoped.

Sakurazuka smiled. "Now we wait. Come, Subaru-kun."

"He won't come," Shizuka said. "He hates me. I almost killed him." He thought of Watanuki's face as he was leaving, lips pressed tightly together, something like murder in his eyes. 

"He'll come," Sakurazuka said. He went down the stairs and Subaru followed, glancing behind him at Shizuka. He looked alive for the first time. 

"Kunogi's drugged in the house," he said very quietly. "She's alive, and safe. Just sleeping." Then he turned, and followed Sakurazuka down the stairs. 

It got dark. Shizuka sat down. He could put his hands on his knees if he did. They pulled at the manacles just slightly, but it wasn't painful. 

Around midnight, Subaru came up and checked on him. He examined the marks forming on Shizuka's wrists, checked his pulse. He was methodical, dead again. 

"Why do you stay here?" Shizuka asked. 

"I love him," Subaru said. "And in his own way, he loves me. That's why he's getting me Watanuki."

"He's killing you," Shizuka said. "It's obvious." 

A tiny, heartbroken smile crossed Subaru's face for a fleeting second. "I know he is." He went back down the stairs. 

\--

There was morning, and through the window Shizuka watched the sun move across the sky with agonizing slowness. The bleeding had slowed, at least, but it took a lot longer for vampire wounds to clot and Shizuka knew that he would be dead in fifteen or sixteen more hours, if not less. Subaru checked on him again in midmorning, not speaking to him. Shizuka didn't know what to say to make him talk, and so the other vampire checked his pulse and looked at the scrapes on his wrists, now bleeding sluggishly, and left. 

The girl stirred in late afternoon, rolling over onto her side. She was sleeping now, the effects of the drugs mostly worn off, leaving behind the unnatural stillness of unconsciousness and moving a little in her sleep, as children are wont to do, tucking one hand under her cheek and the other fisted next to her face. He watched her until the sun began to set, until her smell was the only thing in his nose and he had to look away, to forget she was there. 

He looked out the window at the darkening sky and thought of Watanuki, of Watanuki making inarizushi for dinner one night when Shizuka was hungry. Shizuka sat in the kitchen and smelled it, smelled Watanuki making it, his favorite food when he'd been nineteen and human, and after Watanuki had eaten, drank from him ten minutes later, just as the flavor was slipping into his bloodstream. When he'd finished, he made green tea and as they sat in the kitchen and drank it, Watanuki had smiled at him, just slightly, and said, "Happy birthday."

He hadn't celebrated his birthday in nearly sixty years. It lost its charm after awhile. Watanuki had to remind him when it was.

 _I'm going to die here_. Shizuka closed his eyes. 

"I know vampirism isn't a life sentence, but this is ridiculous."

Shizuka opened his eyes again, and Watanuki was staring at him from the window, the wounds on his neck still bandaged but not as extensively. Dark bruises, purple and red, showed past the bandage's edges, creeping up his chin and spreading across his collarbone and disappearing into his shirt 

"You're out of blood," Shizuka said. 

"S'why I brought you a gift." He threw a bag of hospital blood across the floor, and hopped off the sill into the room. There was a knapsack on his back, and he shrugged it off and moved forward. 

"You shouldn't be here."

"Shut up. This is my choice, moron, not yours." He was picking the locks on the manacles, clumsy but effective, and Shizuka dropped to the ground and bit into the blood bag before he could look at the warm, sweet child sleeping on the cot. The blood was cold, a little congealed, and tasted like shit, but underneath Shizuka could taste a sharp anger and then a familiar underlying fondness that always surprised him and something addictive and painfully sweet. 

"This is—"

"I store some up," Watanuki said. "Just in case."

"It's old," Shizuka said, sucking out the final drops from the bag and licking the blood that had spilled from the punctures in the bag off his hands. "Thank you."

Watanuki's eyes dropped to Shizuka's fingers and then he looked away sharply. "Shut up," he said again and pulled another bag out of his coat. "D'you—"

The sharp pains of hunger were fading. "Save it for a bit," Shizuka said. "Not now, but I'll need it later."

"You take it, then," Watanuki said, and handed Shizuka his own coat. Shizuka put it on and Watanuki tucked the bag into the inside breast pocket, looking up at him. 

"You didn't have to come back," Shizuka said, still staring at the bandages on Watanuki's neck and the bruise that spread across his shoulder and collarbone. 

"I did, though," Watanuki said. "Because." He smiled at Shizuka's chest, a sort of strange, wry smile. And then he tipped his head up and kissed him, hands fisted in Shizuka's lapels. It was brief but firm, and he pulled away and grabbed the knapsack he'd dropped behind him. "Here." 

Shizuka opened the knapsack and pulled out his crossbow and a bandolier of bolts. He brushed one with his finger and it burned. 

"Your grandfather cursed them, and then I sprayed them with holy water just in case. We thought it was probably best to be indiscriminate."

Shizuka strapped on the bandolier and nodded. "My grandfather's a smart man."

"What am I, chopped liver?"

"You might be smart, too," Shizuka allowed, and Watanuki punched him in the arm, and then his eye caught the scrapes on his wrists. He took his hand, and lifted it, examining it closely. 

"Do they hurt?"

"Not badly," Shizuka said. "They're healing." 

Watanuki brushed some dried blood away from the scrapes and darted a glance at Shizuka's face, like he was checking to see if he wasn't looking, and pressed his lips to the mark quickly, dropping Shizuka's hand a second later. Shizuka's breath caught in his throat.

"Who's the bit?"

"I don't know. She's been asleep, so I think she's drugged. She's healthy and her blood is good. They wanted me to get so hungry I broke the chains and bit her."

Watanuki said nothing, but looked at the girl, a question. 

Shizuka shook his head. "No. _No."_

Watanuki shook his head wryly. "I didn't even need to ask. Come on, we need to find Himawari-chan."

"I know where she is. I'll go get her and you take the girl." 

"We can't carry her and get Himawari back—"

"No," Shizuka said. "You stay here. Kunogi was bait for you, but I came. So he got me and waited again for you. He wants you. He has a vampire pet—I don't know how willing he is, or if he's even aware of what he's doing. He seemed coherent enough, but when he was with Sakurazuka it was like he was hypnotized or something. Sakurazuka wants you for him." He glanced at the kid again. "Try and wake her up. It's been a long time, so maybe the drugs wore off and she's just sleeping. I'll get Kunogi. We'll meet in the yard."

Watanuki nodded, grabbed Shizuka's lapels again, pressing a short, hard kiss to his mouth, and went over to her. Shizuka blinked at him. He touched his mouth with his cold fingers, the warmth of Watanuki's lips still lingering there.

"Go, you idiot!" Watanuki said, not looking at him, and Shizuka, shaking his head, descended the stairs, and tried the door. It was still open, to his surprise. Then again, if he'd decided his hunger was more important than his morals and drained the girl, he probably would have just jumped out the window. He opened it slowly, and when nothing came at him, crossed the yard and slid open one of the shouji to enter the main house. He entered an empty bedroom, sliding open the door to the hall with as much caution as possible, prowling through the house, checking rooms methodically. 

He passed the living room and nearly jumped when he heard voices. Pressing himself against the wall, he inched along, listening. He poked his head around the corner.

And there was Subaru, claws extended and pressed against Sakurazuka's throat. He was crying. 

"Are you going to kill me, Subaru-kun?" Sakurazuka asked. 

"I could, if I wanted," Subaru said. His voice was rough, but even. "You wouldn't be able to do anything."

Shizuka took the distraction for what it was and slipped into the kitchen, completely out of Sakurazuka's sight. There was another hallway on the other side, with a couple of doors. One was a western bathroom, dated at least forty years previous. The other was a lounge, and on the floor in the corner was Himawari. She was tossing a little in her sleep, restless and cold, trembling. 

He knelt next to her. "Kunogi," he said. "Kunogi, wake up."

Her eyes flickered, and she mumbled something unintelligible. The drugs were wearing off, then, a little. He picked her up. Under her masses of hair, and despite her height—almost as tall as Shizuka—she was light, and he carried her easily. 

He'd left the door from the kitchen to the living room open, and through it he could see Subaru, cradling an unconscious Sakurazuka in his lap. 

He took a breath, and entered the room. "What are you going to do?" he asked. 

Subaru shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I don't—I don't want to leave. Kamui would protect me. He'd do anything for me. He's my best friend, my only family. But I don't want to leave." He shook his head. "But I have to, maybe." He looked at Shizuka, eyes bleak. "Is staying with the person you love worth dying?"

Kunogi tucked her face into Shizuka's neck, and Shizuka remembered the bruises on Watanuki's throat, spreading blue and purple. The look on his face when he came through the window. All of the looks before that, all of the shouting, all of the everything, the blood, the tears, the anger. The realization, years ago, that when Watanuki died he would probably die too. 

"I don't know," he said. 

Subaru smiled, and kissed Sakurazuka's forehead, almost a farewell. "Go," he said. 

Shizuka ducked out the kitchen door and ran around the house. Watanuki was standing near the koi pond, carrying the little girl, who was awake, piggyback. 

"Her name's Sakura," Watanuki said. "She knows Yuuko-san. Or, her brother does. I called Yuuko-san. How are we on time?"

"The vampire's holding him off," Shizuka said. "No hurry, but we should go."

Watanuki gave him a strange look. Shizuka shrugged. 

"Doumeki?" Himawari asked sleepily. 

"Yeah," he said. 

"What's going on?" 

Shizuka glanced at Watanuki, who lifted his eyebrows. "You explain," he said, and smirked when Shizuka glanced down at Himawari's face and didn't know where to start.

\--

They took Himawari to her and Nataku's house. Nataku was sitting upright, pale face even more white than usual, his hair mussed from where he'd ran his hands through his hair, though they rested on his knees now. He looked horrifically, childishly serene. 

As they entered, Himawari stepping in between the two of them, still a little groggy but firm on her feet. "Sweetie?"

"Himawari!" Nataku pushed himself to his feet and ran to her, hugging her tightly. He was so thin and tall, and as she enfolded herself into the hug, her hair seemed to almost encase them. "I missed you. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, just a little tired. Don't worry about me! Shizuka-kun and Kimihiro-kun rescued me!"

"Himawari," Nataku said again, his face in her hair. 

"Hey," she said, cupping his face in her hands. "How about we go to bed?" When he nodded, she pressed her forehead against his for a moment and then said, "Okay. Let's go, okay?"

"We'll see ourselves out," Watanuki said quietly, Sakura still clinging to his back, eyes wide, and Himawari smiled at them, and mouthed, _thank you._  
  
\--

 

With Himawari deposited back with her husband, Shizuka and Watanuki were free to go back to the shop, where Sakura's older brother waited outside for them, tapping his foot in worry.

"Yuuko called me," he said. "Said you were bringing her back. She's asleep now, I guess."

"Typical," Watanuki muttered, and Shizuka snorted as Watanuki let Sakura down. She ran into her brother's arms. He picked her up, murmuring to her like she was a toddler, and started walking down the street.

"That was easier than I expected it to be," Watanuki said.

"What was?" Shizuka asked. Sakura had wrapped her entire body around her older brother, and looked like she'd already fallen asleep on his shoulder. 

"The whole rescue thing," Watanuki said. "I was expecting more drama. And fighting." He looked at Shizuka. " _They_ were fighting?"

"The vampire won, no contest," Shizuka said. "He wasn't sure if he wanted to leave or not. I said Sakurazuka was killing him. He wasn’t sure if he cared." He looked at Watanuki. 

Not long after they first met, Shizuka had rescued Watanuki from five very young vamps that wanted him so badly they'd gone beserk. It had nearly drained Shizuka, and Yuuko hadn't had any blood his type. Watanuki had donated his own, and Shizuka woke up sucking the last vestiges of it from a bag, Watanuki staring at him. 

They'd only known each other for two weeks, and Shizuka already knew he was in it until the end. 

"I don't want you to die," Watanuki said. He unlocked the door, opened it, and gestured Shizuka in, closing it behind them and sliding the deadbolt into place. And then he pushed Shizuka up against one of the shelves and kissed him again. 

It had been a long time since Shizuka had kissed anyone, and Watanuki seemed just as inexperienced as he was, pushing his tongue into Shizuka's mouth with too much force, biting down and breaking open the scabs on his lip, blood filling both their mouths. 

Watanuki pulled away and dragged him into the back of the shop. "Tell me you want this," he said, and Shizuka could only nod helplessly, kissing Watanuki short and desperate. Watanuki shuddered, his eyes enormous. "Then tell me when to stop," he said, and Shizuka couldn't think of anything that he wouldn't let Watanuki do to him. He kissed him again instead, and pushed him into the back room, dragging them both down onto the couch. 

When he pulled away, Watanuki's lips were stained with his blood, bright red against his pale, pale skin. Watanuki lifted a hand to wipe away a drop that had slid out of the corner of his mouth, down his chin, and Shizuka grabbed it and sucked his thumb into his mouth, tasting the strangeness of drinking his own, stolen blood and underneath, the pervasive familiarity of Watanuki, still fresh enough in his system to be flavorful. Watanuki shuddered and then rolled them over, kneeling between Shizuka's legs, forcing him to brace one foot on the floor and the other against the back of the sofa. He leaned over Shizuka and kissed him again, sucking at Shizuka's bloody lip. 

Shizuka licked the blood out of Watanuki's mouth, cupping his jawline with both hands. "You should be the vampire." 

Watanuki scoffed. "It's not like you taste good," he said. "Did I say you could talk?"

Shizuka watched Watanuki's face, skin pale and eyes so, so blue, and said, "No."

Watanuki unwrapped the bandages from his neck. The cut had stopped bleeding, long enough ago that the blood on the bandage had dried brown and crusty. Underneath were several deep wounds; punctures connected to long, deep gashes as Shizuka's mouth slipped on the blood he was drawing, as his teeth caught purchase again and again. He looked up at Watanuki's face again. He crumpled the gauze up and slid the fingers of his empty hand in between Shizuka's lips. "Open."

Shizuka opened his mouth. 

Watanuki shoved the bandage in, not far enough to gag, not even far enough to be impossible to spit out. But it got the point across, and Shizuka wasn't about to try. He could taste Watanuki's dried blood on the gauze.

Watanuki met his eyes. "Leave it in, or else I'll—I'll punish you."

Part of Shizuka contemplated spitting it out then, just to see what would happen. But then Watanuki said, "Hands above your head, on the arm of the sofa."

Shizuka lifted his arms, not breaking his gaze. Watanuki leaned over and pulled the long-sleeve shirt over his head, leaving it wrapped around his forearms but careful of his wrists, twisting the body of the shirt between his arms, pushing extra into Shizuka's hands and closing his fingers around it. "Don't move," he said. 

Shizuka shook his head, still watching him. Watanuki ran thin fingers down Shizuka's chest, tracing ribs and muscles and the scabs from Subaru's claws and brushing over his nipples deliberately. He dragged his knuckles over the skin just above the waist of Shizuka's pants, suddenly hesitant. He paused at a bruise just above his hipbone, and looked up at Shizuka sharply. 

"If you want to stop," he said, "just—stop me. Just don't hurt me, okay? Tear your shirt, spit out the gauze, push me off—whatever you need, just don't hurt me."

Shizuka nodded. 

Watanuki leaned over Shizuka's chest again and pressed his lips to just below Shizuka's collarbone, and then he bit down, _hard._ Shizuka's hips jerked. 

"Did you like that?" Watanuki asked. 

Shizuka nodded. 

Watanuki bit down again, in the exact same place, and then bit _harder_ , and Shizuka took a sharp breath, nearly choking on the gauze in his mouth. Watanuki's teeth let up and then bit down again, and this time Shizuka felt skin break, and whined into his gag. 

Watanuki's blunt teeth released his collarbone and he smiled. "Knew I could get you to make a sound." He tipped Shizuka's chin up and kissed him, tongue warm against the wet gag. He pulled back and frowned, dissatisfied. "Don't talk unless I say you can." He pulled the bandage out of his mouth to kiss him again, properly this time. He tasted of blood, his mouth soft and smooth after the rough gauze. Shizuka kissed him back. He nipped at Watanuki's lip, not hard enough to draw blood, and tasted the inside of Watanuki's teeth, the feeling of his tongue, the ridges of the roof of his mouth. 

They kissed for a long time, Watanuki sinking into the cradle of Shizuka's hips and rocking against him, slowly at first, and then faster and faster until they broke apart, breath mingling as Watanuki pressed his forehead against Shizuka's and gasped into his open mouth. 

"Talk to me," he said, panting, hips moving frantically against Shizuka's. "What do you want?" His eyes were huge and dilated, a ring of butterfly-blue around giant black pupils. 

There was nothing else to say. "Everything," Shizuka said, his arms in their bound position cramping from the tension he was holding in them, his fists clenched so tightly in the fabric of his shirt that he could feel the crescents of his fingernails in his palms through the cloth. _"Everything,_ " he gasped, and came. 

Watanuki's hips stuttered for a moment, and then he dropped his head to Shizuka's shoulder and said, " _Fffffuck_ ," the fricatives stretching out for centuries before everything stopped. 

\--

In the morning, the bruise on Watanuki's shoulder had faded a little, turning from purple to green to yellow around the edges. Shizuka had a mark on his collarbone, one that under no circumstances could possibly be called a hickey; dark blood pooled around ragged holes from teeth not meant to break skin, marks that had scabbed over and were healing too quickly for Shizuka's taste. Shizuka had dragged Watanuki into the shower with him and there Watanuki pressed his fingers to the mark and Shizuka had shuddered and melted a little against the wall, sinking down far enough that Watanuki had to bend to kiss him. 

They both left the bath with more traditional marks; real hickeys sucked into skin and little fingerprint bruises and Shizuka with reddened knees. All but one could be covered up with their clothes—where Shizuka had nearly torn out Watanuki's throat. After a night of sleeping, the colors of the bruise spread up onto his jaw. 

They came into the kitchen while Yuuko was doing inventory, leaning inside the sales fridge with a calculator and notebook, one stilettoed foot tucked behind the other like she was posing for a pin-up. Uopn their entering, she stiffened just the slightest bit instantly, and then her shoulders collapsed in silent laughter. 

Watanuki opened the food fridge, saying, "Let me guess. You can smell it on us, or whatever." From behind him, Shizuka reached in and snagged a spare bag of blood tucked in the door shelf.

"Cute," Yuuko said, "but you weren't exactly quiet in the shower, Watanuki-kun."

Watanuki's eyes went wide and he slammed the refrigerator door shut. "You were _listening_? Oh my god, you perverted _witch!"_  
  
"Please," Yuuko said, laughing. "I would have had to work to not listen in."

Watanuki glanced at Shizuka, who had seated himself at the kitchen table and was calmly pouring the blood into his mug. "You weren't exactly quiet," he said. "But I was pretty busy, so I wasn't paying a lot of attention." He reached over and set the mug in the microwave, but in the corner of his eye, Watanuki was winding up to a rant. For one moment, Watanuki glanced at Shizuka, and then at the drawer where the dishrags were kept. He did not meet Shizuka's eyes, but instead looked at his mouth.

The microwave beeped, and Shizuka grabbed his mug. He reached up and touched the bite on his collarbone, through his t-shirt, pushing just a little with his fingers. He hid his smile behind a sip of warmed blood, and Watanuki began to yell at Yuuko.


End file.
